“The Jews took up stones again to stone him.”

It seems that, as far as the Pharisees were concerned, no good deed should go unpunished. They were ready to throw stones at Jesus, despite the fact that He had performed one miracle after another.

But the Pharisees aren’t the only ones willing to throw stones. Many of us carry grudges, hard-edged, flinty rocks of resentment that we are just waiting to hurl at someone in retaliation for a real or imagined grievance. Chances are, the other person has long forgotten what he or she might have done to make us angry. But, meanwhile, all those stones we’re lugging around weigh us down. The bitterness can affect the way we look, carry our selves and how we interact with others. Over time we can accumulate enough stones to build a monument to the other person. As he or she looms larger and larger in our minds, a shadow is cast over our sunniest days.

Scripture warned against seeking revenge as early as the Book of Leviticus where we’re told, “Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah.” (Levitiucus 19:18) Jesus was just as explicit when He taught us to pray the Our Father, saying, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

There is a way to turn those rocks of resentment into gemstones, but to do so requires the steady hand and patience of a gem cutter.

Once a gem cutter has selected some rough stones for polishing, he places them in a rotating barrel and tumbles them slowly in a slurry of finely powdered abrasives to remove all their imperfections. The process is painfully slow, taking days or weeks, depending on the hardness of the stones. But, in the end the stones emerge with a brilliant, mirror-like finish.

Occasionally, the polishing reveals a flaw deep within a beautiful stone and that’s when the skill of the gem cutter comes to the fore. He cuts the stone along the fault line to create two stones, each smaller than the first, but together worth more than the flawed original.

In like manner, it can take days or weeks to remove all the stones that have been weighing you down. But remain patient with yourself and keep steadily at it. In the end, you’ll turn those flaws into something precious in the Lord’s eyes.